A timeless declaration: the interior sense fields are impermanent, followed by the disillusionment-to-liberation formula in compressed form
Length
under 1 minute to read
Northern parallel
A rough counterpart may exist in the Chinese Saṃyukta-āgama (T99), though this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — opens the vagga's own smallest and final round
Why this discourse
This discourse opens round four, Saṭṭhipeyyālavagga's own final and smallest round: the same interior/exterior × impermanent/suffering/not-self structure the first three rounds already ran, but with no second variable at all — no desire/greed/both, no past/future/present, no chain formula, simply a timeless declaration — mirroring SN 22.12 (Aniccasutta), already published in Book III for the five aggregates.
Reading guide
The simplest declaration in the vagga
“The eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are impermanent” — no time-value, no chain, no variant to give up. Six discourses (SN 35.222-227) will complete this round: interior and exterior, crossed with the three marks, one discourse each, with no further compression needed since there is no second axis left to compress.
A precise match already published: SN 22.12
SN 22.12 (Aniccasutta), already published in Book III, runs this identical timeless declaration for the five aggregates, closing with the same disillusionment-to-liberation formula this discourse's own “seeing this…” compresses. Round four's own six discourses mirror SN 22.12-14's own three-discourse set, doubled by the interior/exterior split the aggregates themselves do not have.
Why this round needs no merged files
Every earlier round in this vagga opened with three separate files before compressing later combinations into merged ones. Round four has no such compression to make: with no second variable, the six interior/exterior × impermanent/suffering/not-self combinations are already the smallest unit possible, so all six stay as their own separate files.
Key terms
anicca — impermanent — the quality declared here, the first of round four's own three-mark cycle
cakkhu…aniccaṁ — “the eye…is impermanent” — this discourse's own timeless declaration, without any time-value attached
nibbindati — grows disillusioned — the liberation formula's own first step, compressed here with an ellipsis
ajjhattikāyatana — the six interior sense fields — this discourse's own subject, before the exterior fields follow at SN 35.225
aniccasutta — “The Discourse on Impermanence” — the same title SN 22.12 already carries for the five aggregates, now given to the six sense fields here
The text
The complete discourse: the declaration, then the liberation formula in compressed form. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Mendicants, the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are impermanent. Seeing this … They understand: ‘… there is nothing further for this place.’”
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Self-check quiz
5 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 5
What does this discourse declare of the six interior sense fields?
Correct: A. A timeless declaration, unlike round two and three's own past/future/present variants.
Question 2 of 5
What already-published discourse runs the identical timeless declaration for the five aggregates?
Correct: A. SN 22.12-14 already ran this same timeless, individual treatment for the five aggregates.
Question 3 of 5
Why does round four need no merged files, unlike rounds one through three?
Correct: A. Every earlier round had a second variable (desire/greed/both, past/future/present, or the chain) to compress; round four has none.
Question 4 of 5
How many discourses does round four contain in total?
Correct: A. SN 35.222-227, doubling SN 22.12-14's own three-discourse set with the interior/exterior split.
Question 5 of 5
What sense fields does this discourse address?
Correct: A. Ajjhattikāyatana; the exterior fields follow at SN 35.225.
